Barclaycard - how to increase credit limit?

mitbrille

I was accepted to Barclaycard 0% 12 months purchase with £3500 limit recently.
I have an Amex with £6500 limit.
I have good credit score.

I would like to use only Barclaycard from now. What are the steps/hacks to increase credit limit in a short amount of time?
I am planning to get a higher credit limit, pay off the minimum amount monthly and keep the money in Barclays Rainy Day Saver with 5% interest. Pay off anything remaining at the end of 12 months.

Asking Amex to reduce credit limit then Barclays to increase it, would that work? Any other option?
Income: £32000
Monthly saving: £300-500

No other credit card, no loan, nothing on finance, no student loan repayment.

Thank you for the help.

MorningcoffeeIV

No 'hacks'. Also no credit score.

You can ask for an increase but very unlikely on a new cars 

Don't reduce other limits. It will probably make Barclaycard decrease theirs.

mitbrille

Thank you.

I did not mean asking for a credit limit increase now, but probably in 3-4 months.
What is the right way to do it? I have never done this before.

MorningcoffeeIV

Phone them up, or ask via an app or online.

mitbrille

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Phone them up, or ask via an app or online.

What can I do to improve my chances of getting approved for a credit limit increase? Would having my salary received into my Barclays account help?

MorningcoffeeIV

No. You don't need to do anything other than keep your credit file clean. 

grumbler

3-4 months is too short time. Normally it takes years, not months.

In the past it was possible to have more than one barclaycard and ask them to merge the cards and the limits. Don't know if it's possible now.

maxximus75

I believe you can request a credit limit increase with Barclaycard every six months.  This can be done in the app and doesn’t result in a hard credit search.

Don’t reduce your other credit lines as this has the potential to spook other creditors.

just keep using all of your accounts, responsibly.

Brie

Tell them you are about to make a large purchase that you plan to pay off over a few months.  Like buying a car.  Know how much the car is going to cost you and ask for that amount.  That has normally worked for me (because I was actually buying a car).

Do make sure you have the DD set up to make minimum payments to ensure you don't miss any payments.

Marchitiello

As a point to consider:

Barclaycard have been overly cautious since Covid. They used to be one of the more generous with limits together with MBNA as reported on this forum but reduced many limits during Covid and have been overly cautious after that.

in any case, the best approach would be to wait 6 months and apply on the app directly.

OP: may I ask why would you want to switch your spending from Amex to Barclaycard?  Are you considering the Avios earning products from both? Cashback?  Why do you think Barclaycard would be better? 

jimroy

I increased mine by 1k each time online/in app successfully a few times over the years until recently when my Amazon and HSBC JL card accounts closed and when Sainsbury’s Bank drastically dropped their Nectar offer.

So I started putting my monthly Amazon and Sainsbury’s spend on my newly swapped to Barclaycard Avios card instead. (I’d got accepted for the new JL card too so that wasn’t an issue.)

I requested a 2k increase on my Barclaycard limit and got declined. And I have to wait another six months to request again. 

I only felt the need to do this because it looks negatively on the CRA’s if you use more than a third (on average ) of your credit limit even on one card (!) let alone the overall credit utilisation with some of them. (According to their advice).

Anyway, when I mentioned this with Barclaycard, they said it may have something to do with the number of cards I had. So maybe, now some of them have since been registered as closed, I may have better luck next time if I choose to try again. 

Just a thought.